Mike will address issues related to building institutions and infrastructure for culture across Zimbabwe and Zambia, taking ecology and sustainability into account. He will touch on his experience from establishing ‘Pamurove re-public’ in the outskirts of Harare, using cities as classrooms (Harare 2018, Maputo 2019, Durban 2021, 2022) and the Stellenbosch Triennale in 2020.

Doors open at 6 PM and talk starts at 6.30 PM. After the talk questions, comments and discussions are welcome. 

LuCAC and MA Curatorial Practice, Faculty of Fine Art Music and Design, University of Bergen invite you to an evening of conversations and socializing, with refreshments. 

Mike Mavura is an independent curator and educator whose work combines social science and indigenous knowledges to think through civics, spaces, and design. Mike's projects cover a spectrum of work; from curatorial projects, to experiments with education beyond the classroom and interventions with sound. Within education, Mike conceptualised the Creative Exchange project at the Stellenbosch Academy of Design and Photography, a project which takes students out of the classroom and uses cities as design provocations (Harare 2018, Maputo 2019, Durban 2021, 2022).Mike is currently developing on ‘Pamurove re-public’ a learning site on six hectares of land in Domboshava, Zimbabwe where art and design thinking meets ecology and local agrarian heritage. See below for more information about Mike's practice

Lusaka Contemporary Art Centre (LuCAC), a vibrant art oasis nestled in the heart of Zambia’s capital. We are more than just a gallery; we are a tapestry woven from diverse threads of creativity, exploration, and community. Here, artists and audiences, students and seasoned minds, all come together to ignite dialogue, challenge perspectives, and celebrate the boundless spirit of Zambian contemporary art.

MA Curatorial Practice, Faculty of Fine Art Music and Design, University of Bergen is a two-year low residency, decentralized, seminar-based education for professional curators working individually, in collectives or affiliated to institutions, willing to reflect on and translate their knowledge and practice, and learn from each other, to further deepen the work they do in different contexts. In addition to the MA, Curatorial Practice collaborate with partners to organise public seminars, lectures and other events dealing with curatorial practice in an expanded cultural field.

READ MORE ABOUT MIKE’S BACKGROUND:
Mike is an independent curator and educator whose work combines social science and indigenous knowledges to think through civics, spaces, and design. Mike's projects cover a spectrum of work; from curatorial projects, to experiments with education beyond the classroom and interventions with sound. Curatorial projects include Mitumba-Invasive Species: Jan van Esch solo exhibition at Gus gallery Stellenbosch, 2023, From the Vault Exhibition (the Fort Hare and Stellenbosch University art Collections in dialogue), Stellenbosch Triennale 2020, Vedanā: Experiences of Tonality in the Véronique Susman-Savigne Collection, Norval Foundation, Cape Town 2019. Within education, Mike conceptualised the Creative Exchange project at the Stellenbosch Academy of Design and Photography, a project which takes students out of the classroom and uses cities as design provocations (Harare 2018, Maputo 2019, Durban 2021, 2022). Interventions with sound include Pungwe with Robert Machiri at ZK/U Centre for Art and Urbanistics, Berlin 2021, ChiNdanga Listening Session intervention for the Five Bhobh-Painting at the End of an Era exhibition at the Zeitz Mocca, Cape Town 2018 and various jazz interventions with Herbie Tsoaeli in Cape Town. Mike has attended the Liverpool Biennial x British Council’s Curators Week Fellowship, Liverpool, 2023, TURN2 curatorial residency at the ZK/U Centre for Art and Urbanistics, Berlin, 2021 and the Lagos Biennale curatorial residency, Lagos, 2019. Publications include “The Refusal of Time: Restitution and the Kilimanjaro Stone” for the Voices Publication in Dresden Germany 2022, “The Food Conveyor Belt” article in Something We Africans Got, October issue 2021”, “To Imagine is to be: Towards the Stellenbosch Triennale” article in Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora 2020 and “Zimbabwe and New Signifiers: Towards a cultural political economy of Foreign Policy Making” chapter in African Foreign Policies Selecting Signifiers to Explain Agency 2020. Mike is currently developing on ‘Pamurove re-public’ a learning site on six hectares of land in Domboshava, Zimbabwe where art and design thinking meets ecology and local agrarian heritage.